Due Diligence…
Ok so this is going to be a bit long…I’m not in a good mood and have spent much of my day in tears and am quite pissed off.
As many of you know I recently graduated with my Bachelor Degree in Accounting. I finished in October of 2008. But let me start from back in April or so. While we were on our family vacation in Disney, our first time ever going, I got a phone call from the University I was attending. I got the message when we got back. I called 3 or 4 different times and left messages…no one called me back. Finally in July I got a phone call. The financial aid person told me I had reached my aggregate limit, I had no idea what this meant, or even how I had hit my limit since I had only taken the classes I was supposed to take. So she sent me over a new Mastery Promissory note which I signed and sent back with several more questions since I was still not understanding…
I followed that email with several more and a few more phone calls…nada from the University..I still have the unanswered emails..so then I get a letter saying my student loans funded in September…so I thought things were good and that everything had been taken care of. Well that was so NOT true…
So in October when I am finishing up my last classes and getting excited about actually finishing and getting my degree…10 days before I am due to graduate, I get an email…yep a fricken email saying that I am getting a refund but that I owe the school some more money. I was like WHAT?
So I called them…Here’s what I was told…
I owed $9700! Yep almost 10 grand on top of my student loans and that I don’t get my degree until I pay it! I’m like what?! So I start disputing it. I try to go straight to the financial aid officer…ummm guess what…she no longer works for the company! The girl I ended up speaking with didn’t know what to tell me…so I requested a dean. I start working with him in trying to figure out why nothing was done about this sooner. Guess what…after about a month….he no longer works there! I finally get someone else..They promise to keep in touch with me, and to help me figure out what is going on…I have to keep calling to get updates. Every time I leave him a message, someone else calls me or emails me.
So this goes on and on. A few emails go back and forth, I request a full audit of my account. I get the same piece of paper that I already have…no help there…I request more information about making sure that I wasn’t put into any classes that I didn’t need. I also requested information as to how much they are charging me per credit hour and some other stuff…which they responded to, but not with the answers to my questions.
So today I get an email that in a summed up response tells me that they’ve done their “due diligence” on their end and are sorry about the inconvenience and the frustration but that I need to make arrangements to get that balance taken care of…
Due diligence my ass! What they’ve done should be considered illegal and unethical! I think it’s a crock of shit that a school can do that. They should have tried to get back in touch with me instead of leaving it until 10 days before I graduate and allowing the balance to get so high that I can’t pay it…I mean come on here. I have student loans for a reason!
I will never recommend this school to anyone! Guys if they tell you that all you have to do is sign your financial aid stuff at the beginning of the year and they will take care of it….don’t believe them! Don’t make the same mistake that I did!
I am so stressed out over how I am going to pay the $9700 plus the $43,000 student loans that are coming due in April that I can’t see straight. I am utterly PISSED off!
I would really like to scream “IT’S NOT FAIR” at the top of my lungs! I’ve busted my ass to get my degree to only have the rug ripped out from under me!
